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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2010 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/presidentvenustiOOcarr 



PRESIDENT 

VENUSTIANO 
CARRANZA 



Corrects Statements 

made by 

Senator Knox, of Pennsylvania 

in the Senate 



By Transfer 

NOV 5 1917 



MEXICAN EMBASSY 
Washington, D. C. 



1^ 

PRESIDENT 

VENUSTIANO 
CARRANZA 



Corrects Statements 

made by 

Senator Knox, of Pennsylvania 

in the Senate 



MEXICAN EMBASSY 
Washington, D. C. 



F|Q-Sf 




I HAVE read an article which the Pittsburgh Dispatch, 
of Pittsburgh, Penna., published on the 2d of May last, 
in which it is stated that Senator Knox, of Pennsyl- 
vania, ex-Secretary of State, delivered a speech making 
reference to the message that I read to the Congress of the 
United States of Mexico, on the 15th of April, and in which 
he undertakes to correct my statements, and submits as 
pretended proof of his allegations the copy of a telegram 
which, he said, was sent from Saltillo on the 21st of 
February, 1913, by the American Consul, Holland, to the 
Department of State of the Washington Government. 
For the information of the public, I transcribe herein what 
Senator Knox said, according to the dispatch published by 
the paper referred to : 

Mr. President, I rise to a matter of personal privilege, which will 
take only a few moments. On the 27th day of April, 1916, in a public 
address I made in the city of Pittsburgh before the Americus Club, 
in speaking of the recognition by large numbers of the Mexican people 
and large areas of the Mexican Republic of the accession of Gen. 
Huerta, I used this language : 

"It was the judgment of the diplomats representing foreign countries 
in Mexico that the provisional government in Mexico had been installed 
in compliance with the Mexican constitution and Mexican precedent, 
and that its speedy recognition would be helpful in restoring normal 
conditions throughout the country. The American ambassador shared 
this view and asked for instructions. Gen. Carranza, who at that time 
was governor of one of the Mexican States, had officially informed this 
Government of his adherence to the new government; the Mexican 
Congress and courts had recognized its authority, and advices from 
our diplomatic and consular officers indicated a very general adherence 
to its authority throughout the Republic." 

A few days after the publication of that address, on the 7th day of 
May, there was published an article in the New York World by Gen. 
Carranza in which he referred to the statement I have just read. 
Gen. Carranza said: 

"It was impossible for me to have adhered to Huerta or to have 
notified anyone that I had, for upon the'very day I received a message 
from Huerta inviting me to adhere to him, I officially proclaimed that 
I disclaimed him and his government. Knox can not prove his 
statement." 

I was requested to give an interview in reply to that statement by 
Gen. Carranza. I declined to do it, stating that there would be time 
enough for me to take cognizance of such a statement when what I 
had said had been denied upon the authority of the State Department 
Where the archives rested proving my statement. 



I would have let the matter go at that, but a few days ago, in an 
address to the Mexican Congress, Gen. Carranza revived this denial and 
stated that I had, in an interview recently in regard to the situation in 
Mexico, practically reiterated that statement, and he denounced it as 
false. 

I wish to say, Mr. President, that from the time I ceased to be 
Secretary of State until this very moment I never gave out an inter- 
view upon any matter pertaining to the foreign affairs of the United 
States at any time or in any place, and so far as I know no interview 
purporting to have come from me has ever been published in an 
American newspaper. 

I send to the desk and ask that there may be read in the order in 
which they are arranged a letter I addressed to the Secretary of State, 
his reply, and the inclosure of his reply, as follows : 

April 18, 1917. 
"Hon. Robert Lansing, 

Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. 

"Dear Mr. Lansing: In a report made by Gen. Carranza to the Mex- 
ican Congress on the 15th instant, the General took occasion to de- 
nounce as entirely false an interview which he alleged I gave out, 
naming me as Senator Knox, in which he puts into my mouth words 
I never said, and refers to an interview I never gave, never having 
given any upon the subject. This all arises out of a statement that 
I made in a public speech to the effect that within a few days after the 
accession of Gen. Huerta, Gen. Carranza had notified the American 
consul in the State of Coahuila that he was prepared to acknowledge 
the Huerta regime in Mexico. These are not the exact words I used, 
but they were words to that effect. Within a few days after making 
this statement there appeared in the New York IVorld an interview 
with Gen. Carranza, in which he denounced that statement as false. 

"I will be obliged to you if you will transmit to me, for the purpose 
of having the same introduced into the Record, a copy of a telegram 
received by the Department of State, in which the department is 
informed as to the intentions of Gen. Carranza in relation to the 
recognition of Huerta, and which likewise states that this information 
had been transmitted as well to our embassy in Mexico City. I can 
not recall the date of this telegram, but it appeared in the information 
series on the troubles of Mexico, and will be found, I think, under 
some date in February of 1913. 

"Your compliance with this request will enable me to justify my 
statement and settle an annoying incident. My purpose is to rise to a 
question of personal privilege and deny that I ever gave an interview 
such as Gen. Carranza quotes, or any interview at all on the subject, 
and to produce the telegram as an authority for the only statement 
that I have ever made in reference to the matter. 

Very sincerely yours, 

P. C. KNOX." 



Secretary Lansing readily complied with the request of Senator 
Knox, and sent him a copy of the following official telegram regarding 
the question, and which shows that Carranza did exactly what Mr. 
Knox says he had done : 

[Telegram received from Saltillo, dated February 21, 1913, received 
February 22, 1.22 a. m.] 

Secretary of State, 

Washington, D. C. 
February 21, 1 p. m. : 

Gov. Carranza has just announced to me officially that he will con- 
form with the new administration at Mexico City. All opposition here 
abandoned. Railroads will be opened at once. Perfect quiet prevails. 
Embassy advised. HOLLAND. 



, .This closes the incident so far as it concerns Senator Knox, 
and this correspondence is now incorporated into the archives 
(or records) of Congress, and made part of history. 

I nov^ find myself under the necessity of again rectifying 
(or correcting) the statements made by Mr. Knox, who affirms 
that I recognized the usurper, Victoriano Huerta, after the 
coup d'etat which he engineered in Mexico City, on the iSth 
of February, 1913, because not only is this confirmation false, 
as I have already stated in the message which I read to the 
Congress >pf the Union, on the 15th of April of this year, but 
also because the personal feeling of the Senator who has dealt 
in this question gives more or less veracity to a declaration 
by the Consul, Holland, which, he said, he had obtained from 
me, but who has no proof that I did so, as this was only one 
of the ruses employed during the course of events immediately 
following those of the i8th of February, 1913, with the object 
of giving the Government of the United States the impression 
that all the governors of the various F'ederal Entities of the 
Republic had accepted the new order of things, and, therefore, 
it was due that the American Government should also recog- 
nize the usurping government. 

, In no other way is explained the hardly honorable behavior 
of the then Ambassador, Henry Lane Wilson, for while on one 
hand he communicated with Consul Holland by telegraph, 
directing him to exert pressure on me so that I would recognize 



Huerta as President of the Republic, with assurances that he 
had already been recognized as such by the governors of all 
the States and by the representatives of all the foreign gov- 
ernments, including those of the United States, accredited to 
Mexico, and acknowledging the fact that I was the only one 
who had refused to grant said recognition ; on the other hand, 
Consul Holland, with the object of helping Ambassador Wilson 
in his designs, was addressing the Department of State, assur- 
ing it that I had made the official statement to the effect that 
I would give my approval to the new administration in Mexico 
City, and this was done, as it will be clearly seen, with the 
object of making it appear to the Government of the United 
States that the regime created by the coup d'etat of February 
1 8th had been accepted by all the political entities of the coun- 
try, with which allegations General Huerta and Ambassador 
Henry Lane Wilson hoped to also obtain the recognition of 
the new administration by the American Government. 

The untruthfulness of these statements is shown by my 
unchanging attitude from the time that I knew of what took 
place in the Capital of the Republic, on the i8th of February, 
because when General Huerta communicated to me that, in 
accord with the Senate, he had assumed the Executive Power 
of the Nation, and held as prisoners the President and Vice- 
President, who had been duly elected, I brought these facts 
to the knowledge of the Legislature of Coahuila, which body 
issued, on the 19th of February, decree No. 1421, by means 
of which, and in representation of the State, whose govern- 
ment was under my charge, the character of Victoriano Huerta, 
as Chief Executive of the Nation, was repudiated; his acts 
were also repudiated, and extraordinary powers were granted 
to me in all the branches of public administration for the 
purpose of assisting in the maintenance of constitutional order 
in the Republic, and by which it was ordered to arouse the 
governments of all the States, the chiefs of the Federal forces, 
Rurales and auxiliary forces of the Federation, so that they 
might follow the course taken by the government of Coahuila. 

Immediately I addressed by telegraph the governors of the 
neighboring States, informing them that the government of 
Coahuila had repudiated the unspeakable assault against the 



fundamental pact ; had repudiated the government of Victori- 
ano Huerta, and invited all the governors and military chiefs 
to place themselves on the side of law and order. 

When my attitude was known in Mexico City, Ambassador 
Wilson instructed Consul Holland to exert pressure on me 
with the object of changing that attitude, and, in fact, the said 
Consul, accompanied by Vice-Consul Silliman, v/ho acted as 
his interpreter, came to me and expressed what I have already 
stated in the foregoing paragraphs. 

My answer was an absolute refusal to recognize Victoriano 
Huerta, and so final was this that, notwithstanding the confir- 
mation that the Consul had expressed to me of the allegation 
that the Government of the United States had recognized that 
of the usurper, I addressed, on the 26th, from Ramos Arizpe, 
via the International Railway, a telegram to President Taft, 
as follows: 

"The haste with which your government has recognized the fraud- 
ulent government that Huerta is trying to build upon treason and 
crime, has brought civil war to the State of Coahuila, which I repre- 
sent, and very soon it will spread all over the country. The Mexican 
Nation condemns the villainous coup d'etat that has deprived her of 
her constitutional rulers, but she knows that her institutions are sound 
and she is ready to uphold and defend them. I hope that your successor 
will proceed with more caution regarding the social and political 
interests of my country. Signed — V. Carranza, Constitutional Gov- 
ernor of Coahuila." 

This message was altered to a certain extent by Sr. Teodulo 
R. Beltran, who was at Eagle Pass, and to whom I sent the 
message to be forwarded by him to Washington, and at whose 
conduct I was greatly puzzled, for he had no authority to 
make the said change in the text of my message. The message, 
as altered by Sr. Beltran and forwarded by him to Washington, 
read as follows : 



"The Mexican Nation condemns the coti,p d'etat that has deprived 
her of her constitutional rulers, who were cowardly assassinated; but 
^he knov/s that her institutions are sound and she is ready to uphold 
and defend them. I hope that your Excellency's government, as well 
as that of your successor, will not recognize the fraudulent government 



that Huerta is trying to build upon treason and crime, but that you 
will proceed with caution regarding the political and social interests 
of my country. Signed — V. Carranza, Constitutional Governor of 
Coahuila." 

I referred to these facts in my report to the Congress of the 
Union, and also to the second interview which I had with 
Vice-Consul Silhman at Villa de Arteaga, v,-here I had estab- 
lished my headquarters, a few days after the first interview 
which I had with Consul Holland, all of which prove that I 
continued to follow the same course that I had taken since 
the 19th of February concerning Huerta. 

In the meantime I continued making preparations for the 
struggle, and already I had fought the federal forces, on the 
7th day of May, at the Hacienda de Anhelo, and I attacked, 
during the 226. and 23d, the city of Saltillo, which had been 
occupied by the forces of Huerta. 

In order that the Revolution might be provided with a 
banner, and that it might spread all over the national territory, 
as the decree of the Legislature of Coahuila only referred to 
the repudiation by the government of the State of the admin- 
istration that resulted from the coup d'etat of February, there 
was signed, on the 26th of March, at the Hacienda de Guada- 
lupe, by all the chiefs of the forces that were under my com- 
mand, the plan that served as the guidon for the continuance 
of the campaign. 

Such acts show that not only did I refuse to recognize the 
fraudulent government of Huerta, but also that I assumed the 
command of the Revolution down to its successful termination, 
and this is vouched by the inhabitants of Saltillo, who wit- 
nessed the preparations I undertook, dating from the 19th of 
February, to fight the usurpation. 

With this I shall consider as closed the discussion which 
Senator Knox has endeavored to maintain regarding this 
matter, pretending to justify himself and the government which 
he served, for the undignified procedure of Ambassador Lane 
Wilson, and I consider as opportune in frankly acknowledging 
that the intrigue with which said Ambassador tried to obtain 
the recognition of the administration of Victoriano Huerta 
from the government of President Wilson failed before the 



uprightness and good judgment of the government of President 
Woodrow Wilson, who took charge of his high post on the 
4th of March, 1913; also, it should be acknowledged that 
President Taft, with utmost serenity, in the last days of his 
constitutional term, refrained from granting the same recog- 
nition, leaving to his successor the responsibility of passing 
upon the events that took place at the Capital of the Republic 
in the month of February of that year. 




Mexico, 15th June, 1917. 



542 . 



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